Generally, a portable telephone includes a small potable housing in which a thin display such as a liquid crystal display or the like and a plurality of operation keys such as a numerical keypad or the like are arranged. A wide range of information can be displayed by the display, and a wide range of information can be inputted by operating the operation keys.
Also, in a portable telephone, in order to improve its operability, a touch panel is placed so as to cover a screen of the display, so that, for example, by performing a touch operation of a key image displayed on the display, a function corresponding to the key image can be activated (e.g., Japan Patent Laid-Open 2000-78252).
As shown in FIG. 3, a touch panel 6 comprises a detecting part 61 on an end part of which a lead part 62 projects. The detecting part 61 includes a transparent matrix area A where X value detection lines 63 extending in a Y-axis direction and Y value detection lines 64 extending in an X-axis direction are arranged in matrix, and a nontransparent lead area B comprising a plurality of lead lines 65 extending from the matrix area A in the Y-axis direction to reach the lead part 62. The matrix area A functions as a two-dimensional input apparatus.
In a case where the touch panel 6 is installed in a portable telephone, as shown in FIG. 3, the touch panel 6 is placed so that the matrix area A is superposed on an image display area 41 of a display 4. When the portable telephone is in operation, a plurality of key images are displayed on a screen of the display 4. By performing a touch operation at a position where a certain key image is displayed, obtained are an X value output and a Y value output according to a touch position.
In the touch panel 6 shown in FIG. 3, the lead area B comprising the plurality of lead lines 65 does not function as a two-dimensional touch input apparatus, and therefore, in a case where the touch panel 6 is installed in a portable telephone, the lead area B of the touch panel 6 is covered by a cover panel to expose on a front face only the matrix area A where a two-dimensional output is obtained.